HE MADE THE SACRIFICE

  I have read the following story,  A railroad switch operator brought his beloved son to work with him.  At one point he saw two trains coming from opposite directions on the same track. He could avoid the collision only by throwing a switch so one train would move to other tracks.  As he was about to do this to save a crash, he looked up to see his boy playing on those very tracks.  If he didn’t pull the switch, hundreds of people would die.  If he did pull the switch, just one would die, his only son.
The train operator pulled the switch.  As he saw his son crushed to death, through his tears, he watched hundreds of people pass, clueless to the sacrifice he just made on their behalf.

  It is beyond my comprehension that God could love us so much that He would send His only Son to die on a cross for us.  Romans 5:8 declares: “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”  
That is almost impossible to believe, while we were hostile, enemies of God, He allowed His Son, Jesus, to be the sacrifice for our sins. Jesus’ cry from the cross says it all when He cried, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me.”  Matthew 27:46
Martin Luther studied this cry for days going without food and sleep. He finally exclaimed, “God forsaken of God, who can understand that.”  Difficult to understand, but we must try. 

  There was no way of transferring sin without transferring its penalty.  Both sin and its punishment was placed on Jesus.  The punishment for sin is death, separation from the presence of God.  God cannot stand sin, unforgiven sin cannot dwell in His presence.  Therefore, since sin was laid on Jesus, God separated Himself from His son.  Here we understand the basis of our salvation. Jesus was forsaken so mankind could enjoy God’s presence forever.  What a sacrifice, what love.

“Not the nails but His wondrous love for me,
Kept my Lord on the cross of Calvary.
Oh, what power could hold Him there?
All my sin and shame to bear.
Not the nails, but His wondrous love for me.”

  Accept His sacrifice, the price paid for you that you might be forgiven and dwell with God eternally.     Remember, He made the sacrifice.

“THE NINETY AND NINE”

  Al Maxey writes weekly articles which I read with great pleasure.  I want to share some of his recent article concerning “The Ninety and Nine.”

  To the scribes and Pharisees, who were grumbling at Christ’s grace, Jesus spoke the Parable of the Lost Sheep (Luke 15:3-7; Matthew 18:12-14).  The Pharisees would have been content with the “ninety and nine that safely lay in the shelter of the fold,” but Jesus had a heart of compassion for that lone lamb “away on the mountains wild and bare, away from the tender Shepherd’s care.” The Pharisees would have said, “Lord, Thou hast here Thy ninety and nine: Are they not enough for Thee?”  “But the Shepherd made answer, “This of Mine has wandered away from Me; and though the road be rough and steep, I go to the desert to find My sheep.”
The poetic words I have just quoted, which are based on this beautiful parable of a shepherd’s love and concern for his flock, come from the pen of a young woman named Elisabeth Cecelia Clephane (1830-1869) and they are found in her wonderfully inspiring hymn, “The Ninety and Nine.”

  In 1870, Ira Sankey became music director for the famous preacher, D.L. Moody.  One time when these men were traveling, Stankey stopped to purchase a newspaper.  He discovered in that newspaper a copy of Elizabeth Clephane’s poem, “The Ninety and Nine.”  He cut it out and placed it in his pocket.  That afternoon Moody’s message was on Luke 15:3-7 – the Parable of the Lost Sheep, and how our Lord Jesus is the Good Shepherd who seeks the lost.  At the end of the message, Moody turned to Sankey and asked him to sing some solo that was fitting to this theme.  Sankey was not expecting this request and couldn’t think of anything. Then suddenly he recalled the little poem he had put into his vest pocket.  Placing his newspaper clipping on the organ before him and breathing a prayer for divine help, he struck the cord of A flat and began to sing.  Note by note the tune was given to him and that same tune has remained unchanged to the present time.

  We can sing the words of the song with real understanding of God’s love for the lost.      “And all through the mountains, thunder-riven
             And up from the rocky steep.
             There arose a cry to the gate of heaven, 
             “Rejoice, I have found My sheep.”
             And the angels echoed around the throne,
             “Rejoice, for the Lord brings back His own.”

  Jesus said, “I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.”  Luke 15:7
 
  I want to ask you, who are the righteous who need not to repent?  You, me, anyone, NO NOT ONE IS RIGHTEOUS.  All of us, everyone, needs to repent and turn to the Lord.  Change, turn your life around, and yield yourself to Jesus who can save.

THE RAINBOW MAN/JOHN 3:16

  Remember the man in the rainbow-colored Afro wig who carried the “John 3:16” sign?  During the 70 and 80s, he seemed to be everywhere: at televised baseball and football games, shuttle launches and hundreds of other events.
So, who was he, and whatever happened to him?
  His name is Rollen Stewart. He claimed to have a conversion experience and became a born-again Christian. He felt called by God to demonstrate his faith with that sign “John 3:16”.  When the rush began to fade, Stewart became more volatile.  He became convinced that God had given him a sign to use more negative tactics.  His personal life became a wreck. By the 1990’s, he was homeless and living in his own car.  His wife left him. 
  In September of 1992, he went over the edge.  Rollen locked himself in a hotel room in Los Angeles Hyatt and made threats to shoot airplanes landing and taking off at nearby LAX Airport.  He held a Hyatt maid hostage in his room. He plastered religious verses on the windows.  After an 8 hour standoff, SWAT teams broke into his room and found a handgun, two ammunition clips and 47 live ammunition rounds.  Stewart is serving out three life terms in Mule Creek Prison in Lone, California.

  Joseph Price, a religion professor at Whitter College, stated that Stewart was motivated by getting attention for himself.  He said, “It was more ego-driven, than an affirmation of religious invitation.”  

  How could a man end up like Rollen Stewart when he was promoting John 3:16?
Because you can carry a sign and not live by what it says.  You can even know what the sign says, “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life” but not internalize it. John 3:16 is the message but the messengers has got to believe it and live it.

  I believe that we will be judge by motives, desires and intents of the heart.  We will not be saved by external demonstrations, except as they come from the heart.  God looks on the heart not on outward appearances. It is all summed up in this verse in Galatians 5:6: “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.” 

May we so conduct ourselves that others can see our faith through our love.

THREE DAYS

“There are three days in the week upon which, and about which I never worry – two carefree days kept sacredly free from fear and apprehension.

One of these days is YESTERDAY.  YESTERDAY, with its cares and frets and all its aches and pains, all its faults, its mistakes and blunders has passed forever beyond my recall.            It was mine; it is God’s.

And the other day that I do not worry about is TOMORROW.  TOMORROW, with all its possible adversities, its burdens, its perils, its large promise and poor performance, its failures and mistakes, is as far beyond my mastery as its dead sister -yesterday.         Tomorrow is God’s day, it will be mine.

There is left for myself, then, but one day in the week – TODAY.
Any man can fight the battles of today.  Any woman can carry the burdens of just one day; any man can resist the temptations of today.  It is only when we willfully add the burdens of those two awful eternities, yesterday and tomorrow truly such burdens as only the mighty God can sustain, that we break down.  It isn’t the experiences of today that drive men mad.  It is the remorse of what happened yesterday, and fear of what tomorrow might bring.

They are God’s days, leave them to Him.”             -Anonymous

“The clock of life is wound but once.
And no man has the power
To tell just where the hands will stop.
At late or early hour.
To lose one’s wealth is sad indeed.
To lose one’s health is more;
To lose one’s soul is such a loss
As no man can restore.
The present only is our own,
To  seek to do God’s will;
Tomorrow holds no promise, for
The clock may then be still.”                              -Unknown

With our faith in Christ we can face time and eternity without fear, knowing that God is with us both now and forever.  If we believe in Him, let us redeem the time, using all that God has given us to share what Christ has done for us. But, if you have not yet believed, there is no better time, and there may be no other time than today.

The Apostle wrote, “I tell you, now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation.”    2 Corinthians 6:2

OUT OF THE STORM

  I was impressed by this story told by Preacher, Joe Ringwalt.
One snowy Christmas Eve, the wife was taking the children and attending the church service.  She asked the husband to go with them, but he refused saying, “That Christmas story is nonsense.  Why would God    lower Himself to come to Earth as a man?  That is ridiculous.”  So she and the children left, and he stayed home. 
 
  Outside, the winds grew stronger and the snow turned into a blizzard. He sat down to relax before the fire for the evening.  Suddenly, he heard a loud thump against the window. He checked and could not see anything. He went outside, and there he saw a flock of wild geese. They got caught in the snowstorm and couldn’t go on.  They were lost and stranded on his farm without food or shelter.  A couple of them flew into the window and that was the noise he had heard.
 
  The man wanted to help the geese, so he opened the barn door hoping that they would go inside.  But, the geese just fluttered around aimlessly not realizing what it could mean for them to go inside the barn.  He tried everything he could think of trying to get them into the barn where they would be warm and safe.   He thought to himself, “Why don’t they go into the barn where they can survive the storm?”
Finally, he thought, “If only I were a goose, then I could save them.”  He went inside the barn, got one of his own geese and carried it in his arms, as he circled around behind the flock of wild geese. He then released it. His goose flew through the flock and straight into the barn – and one by one, the other geese followed it to safety.

  He stood silently for a moment as the words he had spoken a few minutes earlier replayed in his mind, “If only I were a goose, then I could save them.”  Then, he thought about what he had said to his wife earlier. “Why would God want to be like us? That’s ridiculous.”  Suddenly it all made sense. That is what God had done.  We were like those geese; blind, lost and perishing. God had His Son become like us, so He could show us the way and save us. He fall to his knees in the snow and prayed his first prayer: “Thank you, God, for coming in human form to get me out of the storm.”   

  Here is the Christmas story: “And the Word was made flesh,and dwell among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.”   John 1:14
  It seems rather foolish for us not to come in out of the storms of life when God has provided shelter and safety in Jesus.  With the Psalmist, we declare:  “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.”  Psalm 46:1